


The Seven Circles

by fireroasted



Category: Pitch Perfect (Movies)
Genre: Action/Adventure, F/F, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-24
Updated: 2021-02-24
Packaged: 2021-03-15 13:28:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,425
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29684679
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fireroasted/pseuds/fireroasted
Summary: Stacie is the daughter of Lord Satan, but she doesn’t want to play by her father’s rules anymore. With Aubrey by her side, she’ll have to fight through the Seven Circles of Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Envy, Sloth, Wrath, and Pride and reclaim her throne once and for all.
Relationships: Stacie Conrad/Aubrey Posen
Comments: 3
Kudos: 19





	The Seven Circles

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: This story contains violence. 
> 
> Thank you to BechloeStaubreyFAN16 for starting me off with this idea. Thank you for your enthusiasm, as always :)

Stacie looked down into the mouth of the cave, stalactites forming the teeth to the maw of Hell below. She could hear the lava bubbling in its depths, and the chorus of a million voices screaming in agony at the core of the Earth. It was a sound she was borne into, a sound her father taught her to embrace, to fuel her rage and feed her hunger to destroy. She felt a warmth take her hand, and her eyes followed it to Aubrey’s reassuring smile, and for a moment at least, the voices in her head quieted down.

Aubrey was the only thing she ever truly learned to love. They met shortly after she’d clawed her way out of the desolate Hellscape and the suffocating grip of her father’s control. She was seeing the surface for the first time alone, breathing in the air and taking in the wonder of God’s creations that had been off-limits to her for so long. Aubrey was there, a hiker lost on the very hill she stood on. For years, she’d shown her what the Earth offered. For years, she made her feel like she was more than a shadow of her father’s mistakes.

For years, she thought they were kismet. Now, she knew they were so much more.

With Aubrey behind her, Stacie felt infinite power in her fingertips. It was everything she needed to confront her father once and for all.

When she was just a spawn, barely big enough to sit on her father’s lap, he had sent her on a flight atop Mephistopheles’s wings, and commanded him to show her the world of the damned. It was the first and only time she was given permission to see the surface, a place she did not yet understand and did not see its evils, for it did not seem so different from all that she’d known. Mephisto told her stories of rotten, murderous, greedy men. Duplicitous men who mirrored the Demons that God despised. The only difference, Mephisto had told her bitterly, was that God held boundless salvation for their sins and they—those forced out of Heaven and thrown far beyond the crust of the Earth—would bear the burden of Lucifer’s hubris for the rest of their existence. Mephisto had given her a smile. And now Lucifer was gone, and Satan had taken his place, he told her. Better to rule the damned than be damned a slave to those who threw us away, he said. He gestured below at the unspeakable violence and ruin, far beyond what she’d seen inside her father’s palace. Look, little one, he said, there is nothing here for you.

Then, Mephisto perched her around his neck and raised her above the world below. “The Angels have not been here for thousands of years, for not a single person on this wretched planet deserves their benedictions. Your father is a merciless ruler, for that is the true nature of justice, and the humans do not deserve anything less. When your time comes, my dear princess, you will follow in his footsteps. You will not allow the corruption of mankind to go unpunished.”

And she’d leaned forward, her little fingers curled tightly around Mephisto’s hair. “How do I know if it’s a human or a Demon like me?” she asked, squinting into the distance where a group of children were playing with a puppy. She spent many hours playing with her father’s Hellhounds herself, which put forth the question she would be asking for the rest of her life.

“Demons take many forms, little one,” Mephisto said in his sombre way, “sometimes, you simply can’t tell.”

“Then why must we punish them if we are the same?”

This angered the mild-mannered Mephistopheles. “We are _not_ the same,” he bellowed. “Never forget that.”

She squeezed Aubrey’s hand as they descended into the mouth of Hell. Her father’s soldiers would be onto her soon. She’d returned to take her place on the throne and rewrite the millennia of her father’s tyranny.

For Mephisto was right—humans ravaged the planet in more ways than she could have imagined. And yet, not every human was conditioned by evil, nor every Demon bound by the same. Not every soul deserved damnation and eternal hellfire, yet not every deserving soul was punished.

She knew this, of course, because Aubrey was human, and she loved her through and through. She’d seen the world through Aubrey’s eyes, seen the greys between the black and white.

And now, she’d seen enough. Her father’s iron fist wasn’t justice, and his punishment was no more than a crass display of power. Her father would choke on his power before he realized he was no more than a slave to it.

It was her time now. She would fix this broken world once and for all.

They strode boldly into the First Circle of Hell, dressed in the gilded ecstasy of Lust. It looked different than what she remembered, though it didn’t surprise her—her father’s emissaries were everywhere. Demons danced and drank in the smoky upscale club, and gave into every carnal desire on the neon dance floor. Just like her, they looked almost human. Unlike her, their tenuous control on their rage gave way to red eyes and forked tongues, slithering out from between their lips. “Welcome home, princess,” a woman whispered seductively as she slowly extended one leg over another from a neon bar top. She grinned wickedly, and the rest of the Demons followed suit. “Pity you will not stay long.”

A flash of silver shone in the corner of her eye, and Stacie pulled a dagger from her belt and threw it across the room, where it struck the gun out of the Demon’s hand, his tortured cry piercing the beat of the loud music. Those sober enough to hear the cry leapt to their feet, brandished their weapons and bared their teeth. Aubrey raised a pistol, but Stacie lowered it. “Save your bullets, my love,” she said simply. “This won’t take long.”

She strolled over to the curled-up Demon on the dance floor, then pulled the dagger out of his hand. Dark blood dripped, and when she slit his throat, he turned to ash. The rest of the Demons cowered. “Drink, dance, and fuck all you want,” she said, twirling her dagger with a smirk, “just know who you’re fucking with.”

The woman growled when she walked past her with Aubrey’s hand in hers. “This is just the beginning, princess,” she spat. “You can have everything you want in these realms, and yet you choose to defy Lord Satan. You will not make it out of here alive.”

“We’ll see about that.”

Stacie smiled and kissed the back of Aubrey’s hand as they pushed through the doors and out into the cool cavern once more. The Demons were fools if they could not see that she already had everything she wanted. Everything more than that, in this kingdom and beyond, would soon be in her grasp.

Through the cavern, they arrived in the Second Circle of Gluttony, where a great feast awaited them. At the end of the table sat a woman in a white dress, hidden behind a cake three stories high. She held fistfuls of the cake as they approached, holding their eyes as she slathered it all over herself. The more she ate, the more she grew. They could see the door behind her, could feel the compulsion of the delicious-looking feast tempting them.

This is too easy, Stacie thought she drew two falchions from her back. How weak did they think she was? The woman soon filled the room when she swiped at them with an enormous hand, cake falling from them like a shower of boulders. Stacie smirked, then bathed the cake in red.

Next was Greed, a room covered in mountains of golden coins. Red Demons with familiar red eyes, forked tongues, pressed suits, and diamond watches crept toward Aubrey this time. Stacie pushed forward to protect her, but Aubrey shook her head, walking toward them to confront them herself. They crept around her, their voices seeming to be everywhere and nowhere at once. You’re not satisfied with an exiled princess, they hissed. You’re not satisfied with one who can’t give you everything your heart desires. You want more, they chant, their voices echoing into peals of laughter. More, more, more. Aubrey pulled a pistol from her belt and shot each one between the eyes. “Don’t tell me what I want,” she said, stepping over their lifeless piles of ash to take Stacie’s hand once more.

Envy greeted them in the shape of a Demon as thin as a wisp of smoke. It smiled, all teeth when Stacie lunged toward it, dashing away to stretch and fold and fill the room.

Suddenly, they were standing in a grand room, red carpet rolled out from beneath their feet to the two thrones perched on a raised step. Stacie recognized the polished marble columns, the arches between them, and the dome above, depicting scenes of the Fall. This was her father’s throne room inside the palace where she was raised. The larger, empty throne at its centre was soon to be hers. She squeezed Aubrey’s hand and walked toward it.

The sight of the second throne, however, rooted her in place. A chill shivered through her entire body at the sight of a face she had not seen in so long. “Lilith,” she breathed. Lilith, whose powers were rooted in the wrath of women scorned, was the most powerful Demon in this domain next to her father. If she desired, she could have taken over both Heaven and Hell twice over since the day Adam gave her the first taste of power.

She was also Stacie’s very first love. Though she knew Lilith prized her freedom above all else, a younger Stacie had always hoped she would be her queen someday.

And here she was. Splendid as ever in a red, silk gown.

Lilith rose slowly from the throne. The sway of her hips as she moved toward them was mesmerizing. “Welcome home, my darling,” Lilith purred, snaking a hand across Stacie’s shoulder and up her neck to caress her cheek. “It has been so boring without you here by my side. After all we’ve been through, how could you leave?”

Stacie sucked in a breath.

Beside her, Aubrey was pale when she realized once more that _she_ was the target of this room. She’d lived long enough on this earth to recognize envy weigh over her at the sight of this woman, the most powerful woman on the surface and below. Her name alone had made her blood run cold. Lilith was a woman who possessed everything she did not, a woman far more deserving of Stacie in ways she didn’t.

She gripped Stacie’s hand tight, but felt her fingers slide away as Lilith leaned in for a kiss. 

The quiet splintering of her heart stopped, however, when Stacie suddenly grabbed Lilith by the throat.

“I know you’re not her,” Stacie said, lifting her off the ground with a smirk, “but even if you were…I’ve wanted to do this for a thousand years.”

She tightened her hold, the room flickering into grey smoke as she did, along with Lilith’s long, red form. With her free hand, she grabbed her dagger from her belt and twisted it deep into her stomach. Lilith’s form fell apart as the throne room fell away, until there was nothing but ash in Stacie’s hands.

She dusted it off and turned to fix Aubrey with an embarrassed smile. “I’m sorry you had to see that. I…didn’t think she would still have an effect on me.”

Aubrey nodded stiffly, still not completely sure what she witnessed in this room.

Taking her silence as hurt, she gently brushed Aubrey’s cheek with her thumb. “I told you this, Aubrey. She was important to me once…a very long time ago. But meeting you, being with you, has taught me that what Lilith and I had wasn’t love. Not even close.”

Stacie’s kissed her deeply and sighed when Aubrey returned it in kind.

“I love you and only you,” she said with a smile. “Never forget that.”

With renewed passion, they ventured deeper into the Fifth Circle Hell and into the room of Sloth. It was a library with shelves and shelves of books all around. At its centre was a large man on a faded throne, with broken chains at his ankles, two curved horns, and a book in his hand. “Welcome back, my child,” he said, his deep voice filling the room with a chill. Stacie gasped—she recognized this man through the stories Mephisto told. Though he was no man at all, but a fallen Angel like her father. The Demon Azazel, still bound by what remained of Raphael’s chains, still exiled into this realm for neither Heaven nor Hell forgave him for corrupting the humans with knowledge.

“Azazel.”

Azazel smiled. “How lovely to finally meet you, my princess.”

“Let us pass. I must see my father.”

“No need to be in such a hurry,” he said, slowly standing to his full height. He must’ve been eight feet tall, though his movements were slow and languid as he approached them. He knelt down in front of Aubrey, whose face was pale as snow once more. “The surface has been kind to you, my child. Look how beautiful you’ve become.”

“Father,” she whispered. Azazel held out a large palm and she touched it with her own. She felt Stacie’s eyes burning into her, but she did not dare look. “Why are you here?”

“Why, this is my domain,” he said straightening up to gesture to the shelves around him. “Boundless knowledge and not a drop of opportunity to exercise any of it. That is the essence of Sloth, is it not? Lord Satan put me here to remind you of the responsibilities you have forgotten, my child, but it is not my business. I have lived long enough to understand that knowledge—words—can only give wings to feelings that are already there.” He then smiled at Stacie. “You may pass, my princess. And thank you for taking care of my child. I can sense love between you, and it reminds me so much of your mother and I. Your father will not like this, dear princess. He will do whatever it takes to come between you. Pray to Hellfire that you will not let him.”

Azazel extended his large hand once more, to which Aubrey met with her own. “Thank you, Father,” she whispered, drawing in the warmth radiating from his palm. “She loved you until the end.” He nodded, then returned to his throne and smiled as they walked past him toward the grand double-doors behind him. Stacie’s hand was on the handle when Aubrey covered it with her own, stopping her before she could open the door. “We should talk about this,” she whispered.

Stacie held her gaze. “About what?”

Aubrey gently peeled her hand away from the door. “I lied to you,” she said, her gaze dropping to their joined hands. “I…am not human. Not fully.”

“I know,” Stacie said with a wry smile. “You’re a Half-Demon. Your mother’s genes are strong, but one does not spend millennia in Hell and not recognize the scent. It’s in your blood, and blood doesn’t lie. I’m sure you have your reason for pretending.”

“Yes,” Aubrey murmured, her cheeks flushing with shame. “Your father sent me to spy on you, and…I did that. Until I couldn’t anymore. But I love you, Stacie. This is true. I wish our circumstances could’ve been different, but I…I want you know that I really do love you. And only you.”

“Aubrey,” Stacie chuckled, cupping her face in both hands, “I know all of this. You didn’t think I could be in your arms every night and not think about how everything was too good to be true, did you? And believe me, I was angry. I could’ve killed you myself, if I wasn’t already so deeply in love with you. Your father was right—knowledge exists to give wings to feelings that already exist. And nothing can break the love and trust I put in you.” She brushed the tears from Aubrey’s cheeks with her thumbs, then kissed her sweetly on the lips. “You can betray me now, and I will still love you.”

“I don’t deserve your faith, Stacie,” Aubrey whispered.

“Then, don’t betray me,” she responded with a playful grin.

“I won’t.”

Together, they push through the doors and into the waiting rivers of fire beyond.

Stacie caught Aubrey as the crumbling rocks fell beneath their feet. Her jacket tore two scars along her back as the fabric gave way to her wings. Aubrey clung to her neck, her heart rattling as she looked down at the river of souls below, burning eternally in the flames as their screams echoed off the cavern walls.

Deeper within they flew, until fire turned to molten darkness, and darkness gave way to ice.

Stacie gingerly touched the ground and folded her wings back inside of her human form. With Aubrey’s hand securely in her own, they savoured the rare silence.

It did not last long. 

In the Sixth Circle of Hell, Wrath took the form of a hundred armies across the frozen tundra. Demons, monsters, and grotesque half-living souls—all caricatures of her father’s image—they charged at her like one massive creature demanding for blood. Stacie’s eyes glowed red as they closed in. She pushed Aubrey against an icy rock wall as a volley of fire rained upon them. She drew her two falchions once more and dashed toward the thick wall of soldiers screeching toward her. The hatred her father had spent years honing inside of her, the hunger for blood, the compulsion of violence rushed through her veins as she cut through them all. One by one, bodies fell all around her, and she grinned, all teeth as she teetered toward the brink of madness as power filled every inch of her being.

Aubrey stood at the outer edge of the colourless hive of soldiers pushing toward the centre of the massacre, fighting off the steady string of Demons ebbing off the crowd toward her. She wielded her twin pistols with prowess, catching each Demon right between the eyes as they leapt toward her. When her clips emptied, she threw her guns to the ground and drew the knife from her boot.

It wasn’t long before Stacie stood at the centre of the room, the ashes of dead creatures soaked in blood piled at her feet. Aubrey was breathing heavily as she stabbed her knife into one last Demon, pulling it out and feeling its lifeless body turn to ash between her fingers. Stacie’s red eyes met her own, glazed over, like she did not recognize her when her hands tightened around the bloodied falchions. She called her name, her heart pounding as she surveyed the aftermath of Stacie’s violence. A hundred armies while she fended off no more than a handful of its soldiers. There was so much ash. But Stacie was smiling, her eyes burning red, even as she stood among those who could have once been her friends. She stood there, smiling and watching her like she was the last of her prey.

The world seemed to move in slow motion when Stacie charged toward her, dripping blood from her hands as she raised her weapon. Aubrey was pure adrenaline when she ducked, grabbing Stacie’s arm as it came down on her and swinging herself around to topple them both onto the ground. It took more strength than she knew she had, her arms feeling like they were being torn at the seams as she pushed Stacie’s arms above her head, squeezing her wrists until the falchions fell from her hands. Stacie bucked against her as she straddled her waist, baring her teeth as her eyes glow redder than rubies. “Stacie, listen to me,” Aubrey pleaded as she struggled. “It’s me. I’m here. Please, listen to my voice, Stacie—I love you. I know you’re in there somewhere, and that you love me too. Please. Come back.”

But she was losing strength—she couldn’t hold her any longer. The moment her hand slipped from Stacie’s, her back hit the ground and Stacie was on her in a second. Aubrey let out a cry as Stacie’s teeth sank deeply into her shoulder, warm blood pooling around it as the pain tore through her. Stacie froze at the sound, the redness dimming from her eyes. Aubrey let out a dry laugh as she reached for Stacie with a wince. “I love you, Stacie, and I know this isn’t you. You love me too much to hurt me.”

Stacie pulled back slowly, her eyes wide with dread as the red slowly drained from her eyes. “Aubrey,” she whispered, tears trickling down her face as she tasted the metal in her mouth. “I’m…I’m so sorry, I don’t—I don’t know—what have I done? Oh, my love, what have I done to you?”

Aubrey gave her a smile in spite of the searing pain in her shoulder. “Welcome back,” she whispered. “I really thought I lost you.”

Stacie took off her jacket and tore the sleeve of her shirt, bandaging the ugly wound as best she could after she gingerly sat her up. Those teeth marks were going to scar, she realized, swallowing a fresh wave of tears. “I’m so sorry I hurt you,” she said, wrapping her arms around her.

“It’s not so bad,” Aubrey murmured against Stacie’s chest. “A little bite won’t kill me, but I do need to rest my eyes for a bit. That…took a lot out of me. It isn’t your fault—do you understand? You should go on without me—I’ll be fine.”

“I’m not leaving you here,” Stacie said, burying her face in her hair. “Not after what I’ve done. My father can wait.”

Aubrey shook her head and gently pushed her away. “You’ve done nothing. We’ve come too far for you to stop now. You need to be the one to usher in a new era. A better era, remember? It’s so much more than you and me, Stacie—you need to take your place on that throne.”

“Not without my queen.”

She picked her up, one hand beneath her knees while the other supported her shoulders as gently as she could. Aubrey hissed quietly as the pain passed through her once more, her good arm slung around Stacie’s neck. She laid her head on Stacie’s shoulder, closed her eyes, and let her familiar scent lull her to sleep.

Stacie’s footsteps echoed through the empty caverns with Aubrey in her arms. Her eyes darted around the darkness. Red eyes blinked away, skittered across the ceiling, while invisible gazes grazed against her back. As she walked on, the scent of burning flesh filled her nose, and she knew she was getting close.

She laid Aubrey down by the entrance of the last circle, propping her up against rock wall before laying her jacket over her. Aubrey stirred, and peered up at her sleepily. “What’s going on?” She mumbled.

“I’ll come back for you,” Stacie whispered, kneeling down to press a kiss to her forehead. “If anyone messes with you,” she shouted into the dark caverns, “I will destroy them a thousand times over.”

Aubrey chuckled, wincing when the movement reminded her of her injuries. “I’ll…catch up with you.”

“I’ll come back,” Stacie repeated. “I won’t let anything happen to you, Aubrey. I love you.”

Aubrey gazed up at her with a tired smile. “I love you too.”

They exchanged one more kiss, then Stacie stood and met her destiny through the doors to the final trial.

Lord Satan himself awaited Stacie in the last Circle of Hell—Pride. He was standing at the centre of a burning glade, a massive ten-foot frame, all angles and muscles in his tauntingly human form. He wore a crimson suit, his dark hair brushed back to complement his neatly trimmed beard. He tapped the blade of his silver sword against his large palm, smiling as they approached.

“Well, well, well, my prodigal child has returned,” he said, fangs flashing as he grinned. “With a gift at the door, I see. How thoughtful. I love a traitorous, treasonous, half-Demon scum for breakfast.”

“You came all the way out to see me, Father? You shouldn’t have,” Stacie said, suppressing her hatred with a smirk. “I could’ve gone to the palace. Same difference either way when I obliterate you.”

Lord Satan laughed, his voice booming so loudly that it sent a shock through the burning grass around them, the steady flames flickering as the sound passed. “Your time on the surface has made you soft. Foolish. And arrogant.” He paused, tapping his sword against his palm rhythmically still. “Perhaps we can simply place the blame on the temptations of the surface,” he said slowly. “If you abandon this ridiculousness and return to your responsibilities, I will forgive your transgressions. I understand—I am disgustingly merciful—but no one has to know.” He smirked. “We can keep your pretty traitor in the dungeon. Perhaps in a museum? You can watch her burn whenever you like—wouldn’t that be fun?”

Stacie bared her teeth as hot anger coursed through her veins. “Enough of your bullshit. I’m taking what’s mine once and for all.”

“What’s _yours_? My dear, stupid child, what makes you think you’re entitled to anything? What have you _done_ to deserve more than what you already have? And the humans think _I’m_ a narcissist!”

Her father laughed once more. Stacie felt the force of it ripple through her, hitting her with an unexpected stab of doubt followed by shame. She swallowed it down and clenched her fists. “ _Your_ Father probably wondered the same thing when when you attacked his Angels and locked Lucifer away inside yourself for good. What happened after _that_ brilliant plan?”

“Insolent child!” He bellowed. “You know nothing of Heaven! Nothing!”

Stacie smirked as she drew her falchions from her back. “You’re angry. Did that strike a nerve?”

Her father ran the edge of his blade against his palm. “Your arrogance will be your downfall,” he said, coating the weapon with a stream of flames.

Stacie whirled her falchions in her hands with a few quick flicks of her wrist. “So will yours, old man. Bring it.”

Lord Satan raised his sword and cut through the air in one powerful strike, sending a wall of hot air toward Stacie, and it took far more strength than she could admit to dig her heel into the dead grass and stand her ground.

She felt that surge of anger again, the one that coloured her world in red, that fed the monster within with the worst parts of her. Her mind held onto Aubrey for dear life—her smile, her warmth, her love. She remembered Azazel’s parting message and renewed her vows. She would not allow her father to come between them. She would not allow his tyranny to stand. Above all, she would _not_ lose control like that anymore.

She pushed back against him, dashing forward with a cry, only to be knocked back by a kick in the stomach. She clutched her stomach with a grunt as she staggered backwards, glaring up at Lord Satan as his grin grew. “You were making so much noise that I did not assume you would be so weak. It seems I’ve overestimated the prodigal child. Pity you didn’t take my offer. Now you will suffer eternal damnation with the rest of your wretched human friends.”

He leapt, bringing his sword down once more. Stacie caught it between the cross-section of her own two blades, pushing back with gritted teeth as she watched the rage burn in her father’s eyes. Up close, she could see the fire reflected in the dark. Up close, she could see the emptiness beyond the rage.

Suddenly, she was filled with pity for him.

This was a man who allowed bitterness to consume him so completely, who allowed rejection to fuel unending rage. There was nothing else. Only violence for violence’s sake.

Beyond the curtain of sparks of their clashing blades, she felt the source of her pity flow through her lips: “You’ve never been loved, have you?”

“Do you not see where you are?” Lord Satan replied, fangs bared once more.

“Do you not see _what_ you are?” Stacie challenged, pushing him back in his brief moment of distraction. “You were not born in these depths. You chose to forget that you once had a different name. _You_ are the one who created everything here. _You_ are the one who taught me to do nothing but hate.”

Her father snarled. “Stop this drivel. This ends now.”

But Stacie dropped her weapons to the ground with a clatter. “No,” she said. “I came to challenge you for the throne, but I see now that you have nothing to give me except a kingdom built on hatred. I’m leaving, Father. If I fight you here alone, I will be no better than you. So, no.” She kicked her two falchions across the grass toward him. “I will be back with those who believe there can be true justice in Hell, and I will destroy everything here and rebuild this kingdom with Aubrey by my side. In the meantime, take a good look around you. It won’t take long to see that everything is crumbling, and you are as damned as everyone else in here.”

Lord Satan was stunned. The fires around him flickered and dimmed as Stacie conceded her pride. She watched him steadily as he jabbed his sword into the dead earth. “No matter how many times you return, the result will be the same. I will kill you and your armies, foolish child.”

“You won’t,” Stacie chuckled. “You would’ve already done it multiple over by now if you wanted to. I think deep down, you remember what it was like to love. Perhaps you may even extend that feeling toward me. Either way, you have your reasons, and I forgive you, Father.”

When he stared back at her, speechless, the fires burned out completely.

“See you later.” Stacie flashed him a smile and a two-fingered salute, then she walked away, excited to be in Aubrey’s arms once more. “And you should talk to Azazel more often. He knows a thing or two about being stuck,” she tossed over her shoulder with a laugh.

At the entrance of the Seventh Circle, Aubrey greeted her with a relieved smile and a tight embrace. “So, it’s over?” she asked. “We won?” Stacie breathed in her familiar scent with a sigh, and allowed it to melt away the tension of their journey.

“In a sense,” she replied. “I changed my mind while I was in there—I want to rule the world with you, Aubrey. I want to build something better, something as lasting as love, and I can’t do it without you.”

“You have me,” Aubrey said, confused. “I’ll always stand by you, for as long as you need me to, Stacie. You know that.”

Stacie shook her head. “What I mean is…I want us to rule together. I want you to stand _beside_ me, not just behind me. I want to create something _with_ you. I know I have a lot of blood on my hands, but no more. I want to start over. We will create a world that brings justice to both humans and Demons, a world that isn’t just fire and brimstone and eternal damnation. What do you say?”

“I say…we have a lot of work to do. But first, I’m looking forward to a nice bath,” Aubrey said, smiling broadly in Stacie’s arms.

“Yeah,” Stacie grinned, pressing a brief kiss to her cheek, “that sounds like a nice place to start.”

She took her hand once more and together, they returned down the path from where they came. It would be a long journey back, and a longer journey onwards, but a new future was upon them, and Stacie no longer stood alone at the pinnacle of destiny. Nothing could stop them now.

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everybody! This story was wild as hell, and quite unlike anything I've done before. It's nothing like what I set out to do either, but one I'm happy to add to my collection. 
> 
> The Genesis (hah) of this story happy when my friend presented a very cool idea reimagining Alexis Knapp's recent short film, Rosary. With my friend's permission, I kind of just ran and ran and ran with it. 
> 
> Hopefully this story doesn't piss anybody off. I'm not a religious person myself, but I did have the fortune of reading Paradise Lost years ago. I haven't gotten around to Dante's Inferno, but I am quite fascinated by the iconography and the mythology surrounding different denominations. It's interesting to see where similarities end and diverge. 
> 
> I typically like to write fairy/folk-like tales as a way of refreshing myself after a project and getting back to basics. I thought I would adapt a Greek myth for this project, but that hasn't happened yet. This story isn't much of a fairy tale either, so it's kind of interesting to me how everything kind of worked out. 
> 
> Thank you, as always, for reading it this far and for showing your support. Any show of love is greatly appreciated. 
> 
> P.S. Here are a few extra notes and thoughts that went into this story:  
> \- Mephistopheles is borrowed from Faust, which is a play I really enjoyed in university, though I do believe he is in various mythologies as well. I liked his patience and his wisdom.  
> \- Azazel is a really fascinating character to me since he seems to take many different forms. He's known for being a scapegoat more than he is a demon.  
> \- Lilith is a boss-ass bitch and I love her. I made up the part about her power coming from scorned women, but how powerful would that be??  
> \- Lucifer was the name of Satan before the Fall. Interestingly, Paradise Lost created a lot of empathy for our Fallen Angels, and while I didn't intend to set out to do the same, I personally find it hard to believe in the dichotomy of black and white, so he's a smidge grey for me.  
> \- Yes, I did play a lot of Hades a few months ago. Not sure if you can tell.  
> \- This didn't make the cut, but I was toying with the idea of involving Raphael for some time. Since the Angel Raphael put Azazel's chains on him, I thought it might be interesting to tie him to Aubrey. My idea is that Raphael blessed Aubrey's mother when she was pregnant with Azazel's child, effectively making Aubrey part Angel and part Demon rather than part Human. Technically, it could still be true ;)  
> \- Finally, if anybody is thinking about/bothered by the lifespan of these characters, I would suggest they're basically immortal, or at least millennia years old. In my mind, Stacie is about 2000 years old, and she is special because Satan created her in his own image, much like God did with Man. 2000 years would be about the time of the birth of Christ, so maybe Satan was extra salty and wanted to rebel in his own way with his own paradigm-shifting figure.


End file.
